tldr; Good news! The car is now back to its normal self!
What I did:
- put the car into the "service position", meaning, pulled the bumper cover off and pulled the front section out 4" so I could get at the crank
- rotated the crank until it was at TDC and exhaust cam was showings mark aligned with the arrow on the head
- installed the crank plug to hold the crank at TDC no matter what
Observed that intake cam was off by one link!
- attempted to get the cam chain tensioner (CCT) compressor tool installed, but could not as bottom had rotated and could not get it threaded
- loosened the CCT
- removed the intake cam sensor from front of engine
- removed the exhaust bearing just below the CCT (to allows me to better rotate the CCT)
- completely loosened the intake crank removing all bearing caps
- tried to get the CCT and intake cam out but failed
- loosened the exhaust cam bearings (per spec), removing the back 4 caps
The exhaust cam rises a few inches now, and with that slop was finally able to remove the intake cam and CCT. Poked around and removed as much of the shredded shoes as I could find, which was probably only one shoe at best.
Both shoes were gone, and the top surfaces scored by the chain. Chain bottom was smooth so did not replace it.
Had bought replacement shoes on Amazon (2 day delivery!). Filed down the CCT mating surfaces until it was clear that the shoes would fit, then pressed in one side and used a rubber mallet to tap in the other side until it was clear proper mating.
The #%^&%^&# metal seal that goes under the CCT never stays seated for me and always moves around when re-intalling. So this time I used a small amount of gasket sealer under it, put the CCT over it (with no chain), and lightly tightened it - left it an hour to cure. Finally, removed the CCT, and fiddled with the intake cam, chain, and CCT until I got the proper link spacing and was able to get the intake cam back in position (this takes a while!).
- re-install the bearing caps on both cams, and lightly torque them down going back and forth using a small amount of torque on each cap until both were more or less seated
- verified that I had 14 links between each cam (16 if you count the link above each timing marker), then torqued both cams to spec using the proper "start at inside and work to the outside" spec
- removed the crank plug
- rotated the crank two full turns to verify that all was well!
Note: since all oil had leaked out of the CCT, the chain would move high then low when I was manually turning the crank. This bothered me, and I really wanted to crank the engine for a few seconds to get oil back into it before starting, but I couldn't find a way to disable starting. I sort of recall that you can remove one or more of the relays somewhere, but at this point I was tired and it was late Sunday, so I hoped for the best.
- double checked every cam related bolt I had touched with the torque wrench, to insure I had in fact gotten to every bolt earlier (I had)
- re-installed the valve cover and dabbing gasket sealer on the four corners both before and after installing the gasket
- tongued the gasket down, and re-installed the intake cam timing sensor.
Put everything else back, took car off jack stands, and started it. No codes! Drove it around the block at 25 MPH, no codes! No unusual noise, although it seemed the sounds from left and right valve cover slightly different. Drove another 5 miles or so to the local strip mall, then back. Opened hood with engine running, now the sounds from both valve covers over their respective CCTs is identical.
NOTE: while installing the crank plug may seem overkill, I wasn't sure when I started whether I'd need to remove the timing chain to do this job. Also, I was not sure if it was possible for the exhaust cam to shift while loosing it. It probably isn't, and I was probably over cautious (and spent another 2 hours removing/installing the bumper cover), but before I cranked the engine I wanted to be 100% sure that the cams were properly installed. YMMV.